Megan Brown Quoted on Supreme Court Decisions in Global Warming Suits

Wiley Rein partner Megan Brown commented on two recent Supreme Court decisions involving global warming suits. The Court in January denied review of  Ned Comer et al. vs. Murphy Oil USA et al.,  in which a group of Mississippi residents alleged that a group of energy companies contributed to global warming, which in turn allegedly worsened property damage during Hurricane Katrina. In another case, which reached the Supreme Court first,-American Electric Power Co. Inc. et al. vs. State of Connecticut et al.-the Court  in December agreed to review  the Second Circuit's decision to allow to proceed a suit which involved a group of states and conservancy groups seeking to limit greenhouse emissions by power plants. "I would love for them to be signaling they're going to reverse AEP, but I don't think that was the only factor in their decision to reject Comer," Ms. Brown said. "It's more a product of the procedural posture that Comer was up on and the tactical choices that the petitioners made," she concluded.